WEB DESK
Hackers created a fake news website to harvest data from Australian government officials, journalists and others, according to a top US security company.
The targets received emails claiming to be from Australian news outlets, which linked them to a malicious website.
The website, populated with articles stolen from BBC News, would then install malicious code on their device.
Proofpoint said it had “high confidence” the hackers were aligned with the Chinese government.
“We take attribution very seriously,” Proofpoint threat research and detection vice-president Sherrod DeGrippo said.
“We specifically don’t release attribution unless we have high confidence.
Proofpoint said the hackers were part of a group of which four members had been charged by the US in 2021, when the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre said it was “almost certain” they were linked to the Chinese government.
It said the group was “a China-based, espionage-motivated threat actor that has been active since 2013, targeting a variety of organisations in response to political events in the Asia-Pacific region, with a focus on the South China Sea.”
The Australian Cyber Security Centre has been approached for comment.
In the group’s latest hack, between April and June, victims had received emails claiming to be from someone who had started a news website, Proofpoint said.
They had then been asked to review the site and consider writing for it.
